pic: our catcher

[Canon reeves]

Originally Posted by JamesCH95

Please tell me that you used carbon-fiber tubes for those posts...

...please!

So sorry, but no, just some spray painted pvc with a cast net on it, the zip ties won't be like that, we just wanted to put the net on for some driver practice, it is extremely easy to catch balls. The reason for the height is to block other shooters. We have a low goal dump auto because we control each side individually. Because we used a net, the slack is what catches the ball really, the pistons just allow us to have control, I'll post a side view to see the net.

[nxtmonkeys]

HA! I knew that it was a net!

[Canon reeves]

Originally Posted by nxtmonkeys

HA! I knew that it was a net!

haha, good eye! We are considering duct taping the net to further prevent entanglement and to look cool (we have a duct tape master on our team)! Over all we are pleased with the design given it was planed a week and a half ago, and we are out of our teachers classroom. It was really low cost and fairly simple, no where near as impressive as other teams, but we took what we had and made the best of it! That is what I love about FIRST, we decide the design and everything, no two robots are alike, and our robot is so much better than last year because of how much we have learned and experienced.

[nxtmonkeys]

It seems taller than 5 feet. Is it?

[Canon reeves]

Not from our measurements, it is really close though, we are gonna be making some changes because the super fast spins made the ball slip out, but that is because of the big weights all over the net so we will be taking them out hopefully. It was a low cost low time design and from what we can tell it'll catch pretty well

[maxweberh]

how do you get rid of the ball once you catch it?

[Canon reeves]

Both sides open independently so we can score in low goal, the net is sloped ( see other picture) and it also slightly propels the ball because it is making it go from slack to taught.